Baker Academic

Saturday, January 12, 2013

How Jesusy is the Jesus Blog? - Le Donne

I'm not the sort to obsess over blog traffic, but I check my stats from time to time. I hadn't checked for a while and then I found something peculiar... something that I've puzzled over numerous times since we launched this blog. From midnight to 2 AM (yes, this is exactly the sort of thing that I do at 2 AM), the google searches that directed folks to this blog were:

cedarville university controversy

18

cedarville university

9

historical jesus nerds blog

4

cedarville university admistration resignation

2

cedarville university controversy 2013

2

cedarville university dr brown

2

historical jesus blog

2

jesus blog

2

jesus piece

2

the jesus blog

2

Now, the internets are a mysterious and magical place(s). One cannot be sure what they're thinking or when they will take over and turn against humanity creating the need for Arnold Schwarzenegger to travel back in time to become the governor of California. Even though four searches associated Chris and I with "historical Jesus nerds blog", I am happy to say that we are not nerdy enough to know how all of these zeros and ones work. But, and this is the peculiar part, are we Jesusy enough?

I'd like to think that we are. Chris posts once a week and almost always relates his posts to Jesus research in some way. I post ten or more times a week and (I would guess) relate over 70% of my posts to Jesus research, Jesus cultural, Jesus portraits, Jesus people etc. Yet the Dr. Brown / Cedarville University debacle continues to drive traffic to this site. I think I might have posted on the firing twice in the four months since this blog launched. I have to tell you that I support Michael Pahl and will do whatever I can to help his transition (limited resources that I have at my disposal), but I've tried my best to make this project about something other than the latest heresy trial.

Can somebody please tell me what to make of this information? Is the Cedarville University controversy more interesting than the Jesus' Wife Gospel, or the LCU thing, or the Emmanuel thing? I know that controversy sells, but why do I consistently find my google searches dominated by this particular controversy?

I read the Ex Libris post you linked to a while back, "The Sociology of Biblioblogging," which got me thinking. Most of my search-engine directed page views have in fact come from "controversial" posts about things like Bart Ehrman's Newsweek article, and the Tufts Christian controversy. Seems like there is truth to the idea that people only really use Google to find blogs when they are wrapped up in popular controversy. I would imagine that most of your page views come from external links from other blogs and sites, and through word of mouth.

Jesus research isn't exactly what most people are thinking about while they're cruising cyberspace at 2am...

If it makes you feel better, I came here on the recommendation of another blog I read. Also, I went to school with Chris Keith and like to keep myself humble by my continuous exposure to his academic accomplishments.

...a weblog dedicated to historical Jesus research and New Testament studies

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Le Donne, Keith, Pitre, Crossley, Jacobi, Rodríguez

James Crossley (PhD, Nottingham) is Professor of Bible, Society, and Politics at St. Mary's University, Twickenham, London. In addition to most things historical Jesus, his interests typically concern Jewish law and the Gospels, the social history of biblical scholarship, and the reception of the Bible in contemporary politics and culture. He is co-executive editor of the Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus.

Christine Jacobi studied protestant theology and art history in Berlin and Heidelberg. She is research associate at the chair of exegesis and theology of the New Testament and apocryphal writings. She completed her dissertation at the Humboldt-University of Berlin in 2014. She is the author of Jesusüberlieferung bei Paulus? Analogien zwischen den echten Paulusbriefen und den synoptischen Evangelien (BZNW 213), Berlin: de Gruyter 2015. Christine Jacobi is a member of the „August-Boeckh-Antikezentrum“ and the „Berliner Arbeitskreis für koptisch-gnostische Schriften“.

Chris Keith (PhD, Edinburgh) is Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity and Director of the Centre for the Social-Scientific Study of the Bible at St. Mary’s University, Twickenham, London.

Anthony Le Donne (PhD, Durham) is Associate Professor of New Testament at United Theological Seminary. He is the author/editor of seven books. He is the co-founder of the Jewish-Christian Dialogue and Sacred Texts Consultation and the co-executive editor of the Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus.

Brant Pitre (PhD, University of Notre Dame) is Professor of Sacred Scripture at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans. Among other works, he is the author of Jesus, the Tribulation, and the End of the Exile (Mohr-Siebeck/Baker Academic, 2005), and Jesus and the Last Supper (Eerdmans, 2015). He is particularly interested in the relationship between Jesus, Second Temple Judaism, and Christian origins.

Rafael Rodríguez (PhD, Sheffield) is Professor of New Testament at Johnson University. He has published a number of books and essays on social memory theory, oral tradition, the Jesus tradition, and the historical Jesus, as well as on Paul and Pauline tradition. He also serves as co-chair of the Bible in Ancient and Modern Media section of the Society of Biblical Literature.

Books by the Jesus Bloggers

To purchase, follow these links

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Jesus and the Last Supper

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Structuring Early Christian Memory: Jesus in Tradition, Performance and Text